


Last Man Standing

by Ultra



Series: We Used To Be Friends [4]
Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Driving, Escape, F/M, Love, On the Run, Post-Season/Series 03, Running Away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-08
Updated: 2011-10-08
Packaged: 2020-01-31 19:13:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18597667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: Veronica has been gone from Neptune a while, but she's been keeping tabs. Some people are too important to be forgotten, especially when they have a tendency to get themselves into a lot of trouble...





	Last Man Standing

**Author's Note:**

> originally written for the girlsavesboy comm on LiveJournal.

Veronica Mars had truly believed that her father becoming Sheriff of Neptune for a second time was the best thing that could happen to her little family of two. Unfortunately, her joy lasted just a few short months, until Keith Mars was shot dead in the line of duty.

People had thought Veronica turned hard, cold, and distant after the death of her best friend, Lilly Kane, perhaps more so when her mother walked out on her, when her friends all turned their backs. She had come through so much, and all the stronger for it. Bad relationships, attempted rape, even attempted murder, a multitude of back-stabbing friends and much worse enemies. Nothing could break her, that’s what people thought, but those that knew her best were clear that Veronica Mars was a marshmallow on the inside.

Neptune was no home to her with her father gone. Honestly, Veronica wasn’t sure any place ever could be again. She threw herself into her studies, concentrating only on making her deceased father proud as he watched over her from some other plain. The irony that his life insurance allowed her to fulfil a dream was a bittersweet pill. Transferring to Stanford barely softened the blow of her loss, but Veronica worked her ass off those last two years of college, away from the place that was both home and hell. Perhaps the trouble was always that Veronica could never quite sever her connection with Neptune. Her friends, Wallace and Mac, they would come visit her and never expect her to return the favour. They had plans to get out themselves when college was through, and plans were made for road-trips, vacations, and the like. All lies, Veronica knew, but she told them all the same.

The Russian Mob bided their time, as she had a feeling they might. Keeping tabs on them was never easy, but the couple of contacts she’d made at the FBI those three years ago, when life still held some semblance of meaning for her, they helped her out. Gorius Sorokin held a grudge, and Veronica knew it. He didn’t have much to want to get her for, though Logan had acted in her stead the day he wailed on Gory in front of the Heart College populace. He was her attack dog for lack of a better phrase, but it was him alone that had been dubbed dead that fateful day. Logan Echolls, the only man Veronica had ever truly loved enough, besides her father.

It was Logan that brought her back to Neptune, though he didn’t know it, not even now as she gunned down the highway, just as fast as the speed limit would allow. He lay unconscious in the back seat of the rental car, and Veronica checked every few minutes that he hadn’t fallen and was in fact still breathing.

It was the easiest way to do this. He only would have argued if she tried to reason with him. He always thought he was so tough, and he was going to have to be now. Hopefully he would cope with the shock okay when he woke up and she had to explain all this to him. Veronica wasn’t even sure how she was going to begin. She had just given up everything she had left for a guy she hadn’t seen in two years and hadn’t dated in longer. Not that she had much to give up anyway...

“Veronica?” his voice was wobbly at best as he opened his eyes and stared at the back of a familiar blonde head.

“No” she replied flatly, eyes barely glancing at him in the rear-view. “It’s Elle now, Mrs Elle McKendrick, and you’re Mr Joseph McKendrick,” she said, one had going to the seat beside her and then tossing a wallet over into the back seat. “Married out of high school, both with clean drivers licences, no previous convictions...” she rattled off like a pro.

Logan stared in wonder at the wallet he barely caught as he sat himself up straight. Here was an ID with his picture and a name he never heard before until today. He had a credit card too, a drivers licence, a wedding picture with a familiar bride, and suddenly he noticed the band of gold on the third finger of his left hand.

“But...” he began, his head fuzzy at best and confusion not making it better. “Veronica...?”

“Elle!” she snapped at him, the man who used to be Logan but apparently wasn’t allowed to be anymore. “Did you not hear anything I just said?” she asked him, slamming a hand on the steering wheel in frustration.

The newly named Joseph McKendrick just stared a moment, first at the evidence in his hands that he was a different person now, then out the window at the scenery flashing by, and finally at Veronica Mars, who would never answer to that name again.

She had come back, for him and him alone, to rescue him. He hadn’t even known he was in danger, not really, though he could guess how she had figured on him needing her. The Russian Mob collected debts, ensured loose ends were tied up. Gory Sorokin held a grudge, and he was going to come for him one day, even Logan knew that, though he had pretended not to care up to now. The information he gleaned from Wallace and Mac, which was spotty at best, suggested Veronica was always keeping an eye on things - connections in the FBI, sources that were once friends of her Dads, etc.

There were a million questions in Logan’s head, some he felt he should know the answer to and others he would have to wait to ask. Now it seemed wasn’t the time for any of that. The only obvious thing he might need to know right now was where they were headed, but honestly, Logan couldn’t find it in him to care.

Veronica pulled up at the intersection, shifting the seats so he could climb into the front beside her. He didn’t need telling twice and was soon parked in the passenger side, his head swimming some from the sudden movement. Even Veronica in her serious business-like mode noticed and winced some at his evident pain.

“You okay?” she checked, before her eyes returned to the road - the lights still said red.

“Thank you,” was Logan’s answer, apparently not caring about his health so much as all she had done to ensure his safety. “Seriously, thank you,” he repeated.

“Yeah, well,” she replied without even glancing his way, “we’re not altogether free from this yet.”

“I’m with you.” Logan shrugged, staring out of the windshield at the world anew. “That’s all I ever needed.”

Veronica almost missed the lights turning green as her eyes shifted to see Logan in profile, smiling in spite of the peril they might still have to face. He had a point. She had lost so much and thought she could deal, and yet when it came down to the wire, his life mattered too much to just let him slip away from her.

“Okay,” she said, pulling herself together as she put the car into gear. “Let’s get out of here” she declared, driving them over the state line and into a future together, however uncertain.


End file.
